THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ______________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release April 28, 1994 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT, THE VICE PRESIDENT AND MRS. CLINTON AT "TAKE OUR DAUGHTERS TO WORK" LUNCHEON The South Lawn MRS. CLINTON: Thank you all very much for being here. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you all. We are so happy to have all of you here at the White House and to have an opportunity to see you in action and meet you. I've already had my picture taken by one of you; I've had my phone calls answered by somebody else; and I know you're on the job, working hard for the government, and we're grateful for that. I want to thank Estavia for her introduction. And also, I want to tell you a little bit about her. You've heard that she's from Hart Junior High and that is a school that was adopted by the Department of Labor. We're so pleased -- who all here is from Hart* -- good. And we know that there have been other schools that have been adopted by other of the government agencies, and here at the White House we are very pleased that the Secret Service adopted Kramer School -- and so, who's from Kramer today? Next year, Estavia will be going to the Duke Ellington School for the Arts to specialize in vocal music, so we wish her a lot of success. There are a few people I want to mention and thank. I want to thank the Secretary of HHS, Donna Shalala, who has really promoted the idea of Take Our Daughters To Work, and is herself a real role model. And Donna is here with her two daughters for the day. And I want to thank her for what she does all year long. (Applause.) I also want to acknowledge and thank Gloria Steinem who came up with this idea. I want to thank Marie Wilson, who is the Executive Director of the Ms. Foundation; Dee Dee Myers and Alexis Herman, who have worked so hard on this, and I want to thank and acknowledge Mrs. Luella Edwards. This years' Take Our Daughter To Work Day is dedicated to her daughter, La Quanda's memory, and I'm very grateful that we can say that. I also want to thank People magazine which hosted this lunch for us, because we are very grateful to have all of you here and to be a part of this. Now, I know that you have been meeting some important men who have been going around, and these two men are pretty partial to daughters -- between them they have four, as well as one very impressive son -- and so it is my real pleasure to introduce to you, the President and Vice President of the United States. (Applause.) MR. VICE PRESIDENT: Please be seated. I want to welcome all of you as you have already been welcomed. This is a great day and a great event. We hope that you really learn a lot and enjoy it. And we like occasionally to brag on the fact that President Clinton has appointed six women to the Cabinet, and has populated the highest ranks of the administration at every level with qualified women in numbers that are unprecedented, and percentages that are unprecedented. And the result is better policy and a lot better government. And we hope that all of you who are at work today, whether you are with a parent who is a part of the White House or a part of an executive branch department or in the media or elsewhere, we hope that you have a great time here at the White House today. And now, may I follow on the First Lady's remarks by introducing the President of the United States. (Applause.) THE PRESIDENT: Well, first, let me join the First Lady and the Vice President in welcoming you here. It's delightful to look out at this sea of faces to see the daughters of members of the White House staff, people who work for the national government, people who work for the press, people who have come in from various schools around the Washington area and from other places. I know we've got a group here from Chicago over here, and had some pictures taken and shook hands with them. When I was a much younger man, I was governor of my state and my daughter went to school one day, and she was five or six years old and they said, what does your father do for a living? And she said, he makes speeches, which she pronounced "peaches" then -- (laughter) -- drinks coffee and talks on the telephone. (Laughter.) And, you know, that's about it. (Laughter.) That's a pretty good description of it. And that's when she told me she wanted to be a scientist. (Laughter.) I am so pleased to see all of you here, and I especially want to thank the people who come in from other places, too, to bring their children. I thank the Ms. Foundation and People magazine, and everyone who is responsible for this lunch. The real message of this day, I think, is twofold: one is that we have to find a way to make it possible for all Americans to be successful as workers and successful as parents at the same time. We don't want there to be a division between our obligations to our children and our obligations to our work. And the second is, we want to say to the young women of our society: You can grow up to do anything, to be anything, to achieve anything that your imagination and your effort and your talent will let you achieve. And so, I hope you have a wonderful day today, I hope this is something you'll always remember, and at the very least, I can say what this young lady, who is the daughter of one of our White House photographers and is working here, I said, "Are you having a good day today?" She said, "Sure, I got out of school." (Laughter.) Thank you very much. END